Phil Mickelson follows in Arnold Palmer’s footsteps

Updated 9:03 pm, Thursday, October 13, 2016

Many years ago, during a Masters practice round, Phil Mickelson asked Arnold Palmer if he liked to use his driver on No. 7 at Augusta National. The hole then was a short, narrow par-4, and some players preferred a safer, shorter club.

Not Palmer. And not Mickelson.

“I always hit driver here!” Palmer responded.

Mickelson shared this brief anecdote Thursday in Napa after his first-round 69 in the Safeway Open. It was a round in which Mickelson channeled his inner Palmer, playing aggressively (and often wildly) and perpetually interacting with the gallery.

Or put another way: This was an entirely normal round.

Eighteen days after Palmer died, his golf descendant — at least in playing style and public demeanor — came to Northern California for the PGA Tour’s season-opening event. This is typically a sleepy, low-profile tournament, but Mickelson’s presence (and, briefly, the aborted return of Tiger Woods) has pumped fresh intrigue into this year’s edition.

Woods and Mickelson are the modern-day equivalent of Jack Nicklaus and Palmer, casting long shadows over the game. Nicklaus was pragmatic, serious, indisputably the best player of his era. So was Woods.

Palmer was popular, charismatic, an all-time great player but one notch below Nicklaus. Same with Mickelson, invariably a step or two behind Woods.

These parallels came to mind in the wake of Palmer’s passing and while watching Mickelson make his way around Silverado Resort. At one point, on his short walk from the No. 16 green to the No. 17 tee, Mickelson fist-bumped an adult spectator, a Napa County sheriff’s deputy and a 10-year-old kid in rapid succession.

Nearly every time a fan shouted encouragement, Mickelson looked up and smiled or gave a thumbs up.

It’s a fascinating exercise, watching the way spectators watch Mickelson and Woods. They react to Mickelson as if he’s their fearless, fun-loving big brother. They typically stare at Woods as if he’s a museum piece, behind glass, almost not real.

The fans in Napa won’t get a glimpse of Woods this week, but they’re embracing Mickelson with familiar vigor.

“Everywhere you go — New York, Southern Cal, Northern Cal — he’s a crowd favorite,” said Bill Haas, who played alongside Mickelson on Thursday. “I think that was Arnold, too. Certain fans like Phil more than they like Tiger, and I think some fans liked Arnold more than they liked Jack.”

Haas joked about his first name sounding like “Phil.” So maybe all those spectators actually were screaming, “Let’s go, Bill!” He presented this theory to Mickelson, who laughed.

Mickelson often has talked about the way he tries to emulate Palmer. This dates to the 1994 U.S. Open outside Pittsburgh, where a young Mickelson saw Palmer emerge from the volunteer tent after spending an hour and a half signing autographs.

Nobody can match Palmer’s authenticity on people skills — and Mickelson does seem disingenuous at times — but give him credit for listening to the King.

“Arnold said this to me a long time ago, and it’s always been in the back of my head,” Mickelson said Thursday. “He said, ‘Never walk past anybody, always look them in the eye, always acknowledge their existence.’

“He said to acknowledge the fact we get to play golf for a living because of these people. He not only said those types of things, but he did them with such grace.”

Mickelson, like Palmer, also plays with distinctive abandon. He hit only five of 14 fairways Thursday, scattering tee shots all over the place. He gave away a signed glove for hitting one spectator and a signed golf ball for conking another.

Nothing new there.

Still, much like Palmer — and Nicklaus and Woods, for that matter — Mickelson is a master of recovery. He hit a crazy-good second shot out of deep rough on No. 10, setting up an improbable birdie.

Later, on No. 18, Mickelson landed his 94-yard wedge shot past the hole and spun it back. The crowd roared, then gasped as the ball threatened to disappear. It ultimately stopped 5 feet away, and Mickelson converted the birdie.

Then, afterward, he patiently signed autographs for a long row of fans, Arnie-like.

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